Priorities
by Chasmfiend
Summary: Fifteen years after the Air Nomads were destroyed, the Northern Water Tribe fell. That was the way things were supposed to be. Unfortunately for the Fire Navy, it wasn't the way things were.


The war meeting had been planned in advance, of course, but it had been conceived as a celebration more than anything else. Fifteen years after the Air Nomads were destroyed the Northern Water Tribe fell. That was how things were supposed to be.

Instead there was a distinct aura of terror in the war room. The two cushions closest to the (currently unoccupied) throne were empty, as those who had survived the worst defeat in Fire Navy History since the Battle of Sayu Bay four hundred years earlier were anxious to be as far from the Firelord as possible.

General Qiang couldn't blame them. After all, he was in the army, he had spoken against Admiral Zhenfu's stupid plan in the first place, and he still wasn't kneeling on one of those cushions. Not when the Crown Prince had died during this attack. Firelord Sozin did not have much of a temper, but he had a reputation for being rather indiscriminate when it was finally set off.

And it had definitely been set off, because the meeting had been intended to start ten minutes ago and the Firelord sit hadn't arrived. He was probably at the training grounds blowing off steam so that he didn't incinerate too many of his top commanders. Qiang supposed that arriving late had the added bonus of giving said top commanders time to stew.

They certainly looked uncomfortable. Admiral Rikuko in particular, who was officially in command of the failed attack since Admiral Zhenfu had had the good fortune to get himself killed in the first assault, looked ready to bolt for the door. Not that such an action was likely to prolong Rikuko's life by much. In fact, it might irritate Firelord Sozin enough for him to have Rikuko fight an agni kai to prove his courage. Qiang had no doubt that Rikuko was a good enough firebender, he never would have made it to the rank of Admiral otherwise, but he doubted there was anyone in this room capable of matching Firelord Sozin.

Even if the Firelord was ninety-seven.

Qiang's musings were interrupted by the slam of the door. He turned around, fully prepared to face a very angry Firelord.

But where the Firelord ought to have stood there was only a weedy boy, of about fourteen or fifteen. He looked vaguely familiar, but Qiang was quite sure he had never seen him before. "Firelord Sozin is currently indisposed," the boy said. "He has asked that I attended this meeting in his stead."

As the remainder of the officers looked too frightened to do anything, Qiang stood up.

Before Qiang could say anything the boy added, "By which I mean, he's too busy mourning the loss of his favored son to be bothered chastising you for your failures. Lucky you, you get to deal with _me_."

The boy smiled in such a fashion that Qiang was not altogether sure that they were lucky after all, especially not Qiang himself_,_ as the Firelord would have known that he had spoken _against _the failed plan. Assuming, of course, that this boy was telling the truth. Qiang raised an eyebrow. "You being?"

"Prince Azulon," the boy said. "Crown Prince Azulon now," he added as though it had just occurred to him that his elder brother's death made him heir to the throne.

Qiang nodded and took his seat. Now that the boy had given his name, Qiang could see the resemblance between him and Firelord Sozin. It was slight, more in the mannerisms than in the face, but it was recognizable. From the expression flitting across the faces of the other officers, he wasn't the only one seeing it. Qiang was reminded of when the birth of the Prince had first been announced and there had been rumors that he couldn't really be the Firelord's son, not when Sozin was eighty-two and had spent all year preoccupied with preparing for the Comet.

Qiang was also reminded of how everyone had made _very _sure not to repeat those rumors anywhere the Firelord or his wife might hear.

The boy– Crown Prince Azulon, Qiang reminded himself– was not bold enough to sit on the Firelord's throne as would have been his right if he really had been ordered to take the Firelord's place. Instead, he sat on the steps to the dais, poised as though he expected someone to critique his posture.

"So," Azulon said. "Two weeks ago, fifty of our Navy's finest warships, carrying fifteen thousand troops, set sail for the Northern Water Tribe. Two days ago, that fleet came limping back, less ten ships, six thousand troops, and the Crown Prince with absolutely nothing gained. Have you_ anything_ to say for yourselves?"

Admiral Rikuko had the temerity to look at Qiang as though _he _were the spokesman of the group.

"We gained valuable information as to how the defenses are laid out at the North Pole," one of the officers ventured. As the officer in question was some years younger than the others and not someone that Qiang recognized, he could only assume that the man had been promoted to fill a gap in command created by the Northern Water Tribe.

"Really. And how is that knowledge going to benefit us?" Azulon did not look as at all impressed by the officer's statement.

"When we make our next attack, we'll already know what points of the North Pole are poorly defended and where to strike in order to minimize losses," the officer said. "We also know what tactics the Northern Water Tribe favors and we can develop techniques to counter them."

"True enough," Azulon said, "but you are forgetting that the Northern Water Tribe has just had the opportunity to learn what tactics we favor and they will certainly not spend their time waiting for our next attack congratulating themselves on their success. They will be developing ways to counter our tactics and cover up their weak points. When next our troops reach the North Pole, they will not be facing the same force they so recently failed to conquer, but a force whose better knowledge of the Fire Nation has allowed them to better fend off our attacks. Assuming, of course, that the Fire Nation mounts another invasion force."

The officer who had spoken swallowed, looking rather like he had just been told that the sun would be rising from the west tomorrow. Around the room, most of the commanders had similar expressions. Qiang probably did too, although he had no intention of admitting it when his children inevitably asked him how the meeting had gone.

"Prince Azulon, we are fighting to bring glory to the Fire Nation and progress to the inferior elements," Qiang said, desperately hoping that he sounded as calm and reasonable as he was trying to. "How can we do that if we fail to conquer the Water Tribes?"

"The Northern Water Tribe does not seem to appreciate our attempts to help them," Azulon said. There was a hint of mockery in his voice, as though he thought his father's ideals were not worth fighting for. "Judging by their reaction to your fleet."

"The savages will thank us later," Qiang said. "When we've ruled them long enough for them to benefit from it. They only resist now because they don't understand how much better their lives will be when they've changed their ways, especially for the women."

"Their current resistance is making it very difficult to civilize them," Azulon said. "Not to mention dangerous. Troops slain at the North Pole can't be used to conquer the Earth Kingdom or stabilize the colonies. _And _there is no benefit to the Fire Nation if we conquer the Northern Water Tribe. Their population is small, no more than sixty thousand people, and even assuming that very few of them die during our conquest, those numbers are not enough to make a difference in our battles with the Earth Kingdom. They live in the middle of a frozen wasteland, with no mineral resources or land capable of cultivation. There is nothing in the Water Tribes worth having."

"There are the waterbenders," Qiang countered, although he knew that that remark put him on shaky ground. It was unwise to admit that any element might have an edge on fire, even when the Fire Navy had just been sent packing home by it. "They don't have the raw power of firebenders, but they can heal wounds far faster than an ordinary physician. That would be of great benefit in the war."

"It could be," Azulon said. Qiang could practically see the Prince's mind churning behind his eyes, imagining how much easier warfare would be if a simple injury, such as a broken bone, removed a solider from combat for a matter of days rather than weeks. "_If_ the waterbenders could be persuaded to help in the war effort, which is an entirely different matter than conquering the Water Tribes."

Qiang nodded. In the early days of the war, before the Air Nomads had been destroyed, there had been hope– seldom voiced for fear that it would be considered a slight against the superior element, but present nevertheless– that within a few short years they would be able to match the Earth Kingdom armies with earthbenders of their own from the soon-to-be-reclaimed colonies. Fifteen years later and those colonies were still having trouble with insurgents and malcontents.

"It won't be that difficult," the young officer who had spoken up before said. The woman next to him, Admiral Chae Won, visibly winced. "Only the water tribe women learn healing, and they're the ones who will benefit the most from being annexed."

"But they won't benefit immediately," Chae Won said, with the air of someone who had said similar things many times before and expected to have to say them many more times before they finally sunk in. "It'll take years, at the very least, for sexism to be eradicated from the Water Tribes."

"And it's going to be a _nightmare _to pull off," Cultural Minister Konani said. She was the only one in the room, excepting the Crown Prince, who wasn't in the military and for half a moment Qiang wondered why she had been invited. Then he remembered– they were supposed to have won and Konani's input would have been very valuable in integrating the newly conquered people into the Fire Nation. "People have a depressing tendency to persist in maladaptive behaviors even when clearly told what they should be doing differently. Properly naturalizing the former members of the Northern Water Tribe in under a generation would require either shipping large numbers of Homeland nationals to the poles–"

"And no one's going to want to do _that_," Azulon said, quietly enough that it might have been to himself. "We could offer incentives, but it would be quite expensive."

"The alternative would be to ship the entire Water Tribe population to the Colonies or Homelands," Konani said. Qiang had a sudden vision of half a dozen Water Tribe families, complete with leering men and swarms of dirty children, moving into his hometown and rubbing shoulders with properly brought up young Fire Nation citizens. The thought alone made him want to shudder. Qiang would certainly keep his own children, particularly his three young daughters, safe behind walls if he thought that they were in any real danger, but he suspected that they would jump at the chance to help civilize their new neighbors– no matter how poorly those neighbors treated them in return.

"That's not feasible," Azulon said. "Ignoring the question of where to put them, we don't have the capability to move sixty thousand people like that."

"We move thousands of people from the Homelands to the Colonies every year," Konani protested.

"Not all at once," Azulon said. "And we only take them to specific ports in the Colonies. After that we trust them to find their own housing and farmlands. The Water Tribes– we'd have to split them up into smaller groups or else they wouldn't assimilate properly and find them someplace to live _and _teach them how to farm... It's not feasible."

"If we can't assimilate them all, we could just take some of them," Qiang said, surprising himself with his own boldness. "We wouldn't even have to conquer the entire Water Tribes if we did that, we could simply capture waterbenders as we found them and bring them back to the Homelands for integration."

Azulon nodded, but Konani shook her head. "You're forgetting that in the Northern Water Tribe only women are trained in healing. The same women that are forbidden to so much as _learn _how to fight, much less participate in combat."

"We still might be able to decoy them out of the city," Rikuko said. He seemed very pleased that the conversation had settled into planning for the future rather than berating him for the past. "Some of the Water Tribe patrols are a full day's sail from the North Pole. If they had any sense, they'd bring a healer with them, in case someone is mortally wounded during combat."

Qiang was going to protest that what would make real sense would be for the Water Tribes to train everyone, men and women, in both healing and combat and that since they hadn't been smart enough to do so there was no guarantee that they would do anything sensible, but Azulon spoke up first. "Only _Northern _Water Tribe women are trained in healing. What about the Southern Water Tribe?"

"I'm not sure," Konani said. It took a certain amount of courage to admit that, in front of an unhappy Prince looking for answers, but Qiang was too disappointed by the Cultural Minister's lack of knowledge to be much impressed. "The Southern Water Tribe is much smaller than the Northern and further from other people, so I don't have as much information on it."

"I might be able to help here," Qiang said. "I have reports that a fleet of Southern Water Tribe ships sailed through the Earth Kingdom straits last fall with the intent to aid their sister Tribe in the war. But come winter, they all came sailing back. Apparently, and this is hearsay rather than fact, the Southern Water Tribe fleet included a number of female waterbenders trained only in combat. The Northern Water Tribe refused to let them fight and insisted on forcing them, grown women who were already very skilled in their chosen field, to learn healing with the little girls who had only just started bending. The Southern Water Tribe said they could have their help, _all _their help, or none of it."

"And the Northern Water Tribe gave up, what, thirty ships and a thousand trained fighters because they were too sexist to allow women in combat?" Admiral Chae Won said. She sounded more disgusted than disbelieving, which Qiang supposed was to his advantage.

"I saw the ships come and the ships leave," Rikuko said, "but I thought they were bringing supplies or dropping off troops or something, not offering aid."

"They might have been," Qiang admitted. "I only know what my contacts in the Earth Kingdom picked up about the Water Tribes. It's not too far-fetched, especially since the general opinion in the Earth Kingdom seemed to be that the Southern Water Tribe must not have really wanted to help, if they were going to abandon their allies over something so inconsequential as women who wanted to fight."

"This is why Firelord Sozin wants us to conquer the other nations," Konani said. "This kind of stupidity. Sometimes, I wonder how they survived so long without our help. You'd think Kyoshi Island would have beaten some sense into them, if nothing else."

"Where's Kyoshi Island?" Azulon asked. He sounded, for the first time, genuinely curious.

"It's a tiny little island off the coast of the Southern Continent," Konani said, with a flip of her hand to indicate that it really wasn't important at all. "It was made by Avatar Kyoshi four hundred years ago and the inhabitants have a tradition of women warriors."

"As a contrast to most of the rest of the Earth Kingdom, where it's considered beautiful for a girl to have her feet broken so that they can be rolled up like a sheet of paper," Qiang said. Personally he had always found that more disturbing than simply banning women from combat. At least girls in the Northern Water Tribe were capable of running away from someone who threatened them. "Of course, as a side effect, they can't do much in the way of fighting, but that's not the point of the practice."

"It's still barbaric," Konani said.

"Leaving aside this fascinating discussion on Earth Kingdom customs, if the Southern Water Tribe allows women to fight then they almost certainly allow men to heal," Azulon said, "and their healers are more likely to be on the front lines where they can be easily captured. We ignore the Northern Water Tribe and focus on them."

Admiral Rikuko blanched. "But the Northern Water Tribe killed your brother. We cannot allow that loss to go unpunished!"

"And you propose 'punishing' them by throwing more ships and more troops at the North Pole," Azulon said. "I fail to see how getting more people killed will make up for one man's death."

"Prince Azulon," Rikuko said. "Admiral Zhenfu's plan was deeply flawed. A second task force sent North with our new knowledge of Water Tribe tactics and a better battle strategy would have no difficulty making the savages regret their impertinence."

"Are you really _that_ stupid?" Azulon paused long enough for Rikuko to decide on some response and open his mouth to say it before adding, "Or were you simply not paying any attention _at all _to this discussion?"

Whatever clever response Rikuko had thought up didn't seem to be up to the task because Rikuko shut his mouth without saying anything. It was probably for the best. Qiang knew that, had he been in Rikuko's position, he would have immediately volunteered himself to capture Southern waterbenders.

"With all due respect, sir," the young officer who had spoken earlier said. "Don't any changes in long-term strategy require approval of the Firelord?" It was phrased as a question, and Qiang had no doubt that the officer had asked it with only the noblest of intentions, but it was still dangerously close to accusing the Crown Prince of treason.

"They do," Azulon said, in a voice that was far too even to be entirely unaffected. "As do any major offenses." He gave Rikuko a pointed look. "When this meeting is adjourned, I will notify my father of what was said and tell him what I think would be the best course of action. From there, everything rests on his judgment." Azulon's mouth curved into something that might have been a smile, if there had been any warmth behind it. "So don't worry, Admiral. You may get your chance to prove how much better you are at planning than Zhenfu was."

Rikuko nodded, but did not appear to appreciate the reassurance. It had probably occurred to him, as it had to Qiang, that Firelord Sozin was getting old and soon enough Azulon would be Firelord. Why, they might set sail under the leadership of Sozin and return to find themselves answering to Azulon. An Azulon who was very definitely authorized to mete out any punishment and change any strategy he wished.

Although, Azulon had yet to do more then stare at them and verbally express his dissatisfaction, so he might not be all that difficult to deal with. He didn't seem to have his father's temper and hadn't hinted that seppukku might be the best way for some of them to regain their honor the way Qiang suspected the late Crown Prince Yenzi would have.

"What about the Avatar?" the young officer asked. Qiang was really going to have to learn his name, if Azulon didn't have him demoted for 'being difficult' the kid was sure to go places. "If the Avatar died during the attack on the Air Temples he or she would have been reborn in the Water Tribes, probably the Northern one, since it's larger. We can't have the Avatar supporting the inferior elements. It would be a disaster."

"He hasn't been," Azulon said, far more confidently than he had any right to.

"We don't know that," Qiang snapped. "We haven't seen so much as the slightest hint of the Avatar since the attack on the Air Temples. If he–" and their contacts in the Air Temples had been sure it was a he "–had survived he would have shown himself by now. Four years to master each of the elements, that was how long Roku took, and the airbender wouldn't have waited until he turned sixteen to start. He would have found teachers and no matter how hard they tried to keep it secret someone would have blabbed."

"Do you really think the Water Tribes would have kept the Avatar's birth a secret?" Azulon asked. "There couldn't have been more than a handful of Water Tribe children born the day of the attack, and most of them wouldn't be benders. They would have known within a few years, at most, if the Avatar had been born. They would have needed to get the word out while there were still a few rogue airbenders running around."

There were probably still a few stray airbenders running around, Qiang thought, but he didn't think it wise to mention. Not when he had attempted to lecture the Crown Prince not a full minute ago. "They might have thought they would have had longer," he said instead. "An Avatar born during the Comet would be sixteen this autumn. He or she would have hardly had time to master waterbending and air is the last element for an Avatar from the Water Tribe to learn."

"Or she," Chae Won repeated pensively. "What if the Avatar was born as a Water Tribe _woman_. She wouldn't be allowed to be a proper Avatar, would she? They might not even bother to have her taught the other elements."

"The Avatar belongs to all nations," Admiral Rikuko said. "The Water Tribe knows that. They might not approve of a woman being taught to fight, but they would allow other bending masters to teach the Avatar to fight with their elements. They have in the past." Hundreds of years ago, before Kyoshi. Even the Earth Kingdom, with their vaunted stability and near-worship of the past, had changed a great deal in that time.

"They would," Azulon agreed. "But my father is confident that the Avatar has not been reborn. Neither of the Water Tribes has announced the birth of an Avatar or sent for an earthbending teacher. Nor have they provided more than token support to the Earth Kingdom."

"You think that they could be convinced to stand aside and allow our conquest?" Qiang asked. That was a possibility that he had not considered. Firelord Sozin had always spoken as though taking over the Water Tribes was the next necessary step, something vital that couldn't be left until after the Earth Kingdom had fallen. But then, he hadn't seemed to take the Water Tribes into consideration until_ after _the Comet. After the Avatar might have been born among them.

"The Water Tribes are adaptable," Azulon said. There was an odd sort of deliberation to his words, as though he was only just thinking this through and trying to word it perfectly the first time. "It has allowed them to handle the harsh life at the poles, weeks without sun or darkness. It also makes them vulnerable. They can adjust to almost anything, even things that should cause them alarm. It won't take them very long to think of war between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom as the natural state of things."

"You aren't worried that they'll decide to carve out an empire of their own?" Chae Won asked. It was almost laughable, but for the small possibility that the Avatar had been reborn in the Water Tribes. A fully realized Avatar was a power like no other and as devoted as Qiang was to the Fire Nation, he thought it unlikely that they could survive a sustained assault personally led by the Avatar.

There was a second's pause, as though Azulon was actually considering the possibility. "No," he said. "The Water Tribes lack the force to impose their culture over others. Not to mention they are so perfectly adapted to life at the poles that I doubt the rest of the world is of much interest to them. They would be content to sit in their igloos and watch the Earth Kingdom burn, if they thought the flames would never reach them."

Konani made a strange sound somewhere between a laugh and a snort. "I suppose that's what they did with the Air Nomads. Not that the Earth Kingdom was any different."

"When the Earth Kingdom realized that we had wiped out the Air Nomads, they mobilized to attack us," Qiang countered. "They formally offered sanctuary to any of the Air Nomads that survived the slaughter." Not that it had helped the Nomads much. There were few places that a Fire Nation strike team wasn't capable of reaching and most of the airbenders were unwilling to stay quiet. For all their talk of pacifism, most of them wanted vengeance more than they wanted to keep their ideals.

"The Earth Kingdom looks to the past," Azulon said. "They like the idea of the Four Nations more than they like having the Air Nomads around. There had been all those disputes over grazing land and grain prices in the years leading up to the Comet. I suspect the Earth Kingdom saw our attack as an opportunity. Let us rough up the Air Temples a little, then the Nomads would turn to them for protection and be much more pliable."

"They didn't think that we could do real damage," Rikuko said. There was anger smoldering behind his voice, a sure sign that he was headed for trouble. There was no point in getting angry because a bunch of savages had underestimated the Fire Nation, especially when that underestimation had paved the way for one of their greatest victories, and Rikuko was usually smart enough to keep his temper in check. "The same way the Water Tribes do now. If–"

"The difference being, of course, that the Water Tribes were right," Azulon said. There was an instant of stunned silence, but before the outrage could erupt Azulon added. "There's no sense in working ourselves up over the truth. The best of the navy couldn't take our Northern Water Tribe."

"And you want us to give up," Rikuko snarled. "You want us to let those savages sit back and gloat over how they defeated us, to glory in their victory, without even taking vengeance for our fallen. You–" Rikuko broke off, evidently smart enough not to insult the Crown Prince to the point of an agni kai.

"The best vengeance is the successful kind," Azulon said. There was a bite to his words, one that hadn't been there before. He was trying very hard to sound impersonal, Qiang thought, but he felt very strongly about this. "We could break ourselves against the Water Tribes. They would be happy to let us and I'm sure the Earth Kingdom would enjoy watching us. And when we were reduced to shreds, unable to sustain any sort of campaign, _then _they would gloat."

"So it's hopeless," the young officer said. He immediately straightened up, seeming to realize that his words might not be taken very well. "I didn't mean that! I'm sure we'll triumph over the barbarians eventually. It's–"

"That eventually is a long time away and you want your triumph _now_," Azulon finished. "You don't want to wait eighty-five years for the Comet to return. And you won't have to. The Earth Kingdom will fall... perhaps not soon, but soon enough. After that, when the people have been assimilated into the Fire Nation and the land turned toward production, the Water Tribes will not be able to stand against us."

How the Prince planned on doing it was the real question. From what Qiang had seen Azulon was smart, definitely smart enough to know that throwing more troops at something and expecting to be able to win by shear dint of numbers was a tactic of last resort. And that was the tactic he had to be proposing, because earthbenders were useless on ships and would be even more useless in the icy wastes of the poles.

"So," Rikuko said. "After all that talk about how a second attack would be a waste of time and resources, you propose that we hold off on attacking until we have even more resources that can be thrown at the Water Tribes. What do you think will have changed by then?"

"We will be stronger," Azulon said. He was confident about it too, more than Qiang would have expected. "And the Water Tribes will be weaker. Life at the poles is hard and they rely on the Earth Kingdom to provide them with resources. Not any necessities, but little things that make life easier. Needles, cooking pots, any cloth that isn't fur. When the Earth Kingdom is too busy fighting us to trade with them those things will be missed."

Rikuko stared at Azulon, obviously rather perplexed. Qiang was too. Needles and pots, how was a lack of _those_ going to win the war?

"It won't be enough to destroy the Water Tribes, not on its own, but life at the poles will get harder. Time spent making needles and pots can't be spent practicing fighting–"

"You're forgetting that fighting is the men's job in the Northern Water Tribe," the young officer said. He flinched when the entire assembly turned to look at him. "Prince Azulon. They can shove making things off onto the women and not diminish their number of fighters at all."

Azulon frowned, and Qiang thought it likely that he had been asked a question that he wasn't prepared to answer for the first time during this meeting. "True," Azulon said after several seconds of thinking. "Even so, ten or fifteen years of peace and I do not think the Water Tribes will have the discipline to keep all their men in fighting shape. They'll get bored, they'll think of better things to do with their time and needing to make items that they used to buy will give them extra incentive to _adapt_. The force we face in ten years time will not be the force you faced last week"

Qiang was not entirely sure that would be enough, but he supposed that in ten years they would not be the same force that they had been last week either. Especially not if Azulon went through with his plans to raid the smaller and weaker Southern Water Tribe first. They could return to the North not only with a numerical advantage, but also a tactical one.

"If we assimilate the Southern Water Tribe first, the North with fall much more easily," Chae Won said. "And not simply because our troops will benefit from including waterbending healers. Colony children of Earth Kingdom extraction may not be the most patriotic of groups, but I've dealt with more than a few who grew up in our orphanages, and they're always the most eager soldiers. Troops of Water Tribe extraction– especially women of Water Tribe extraction– fighting to free their sisters in the North won't be lightly turned aside or easily demoralized."

Rikuko's expression turned from interested to insulted, and Qiang suspected that this was the continuation of an argument that had begun during the offensive itself. As Admiral over the Dragon Fleet, Chae Won had theoretically been Rikuko's equal at the beginning of the invasion. It was only Zhenfu's death and Rikuko's seniority of a few months that had led to her answering to him.

Qiang rather doubted that Chae Won would bring that up. It might make the newly minted Crown Prince think that she was as responsible for their defeat as Rikuko was, and that was a blight on any Admiral's career.

"The attack on the Northern Water Tribe is over," Azulon said with a firmness that made it clear that he had picked up on much of the history between his two top Admirals. "There is no need for us to debate what should have been done. But I will recommend to my father that we turn our attention south. The Southern Water Tribe is more vulnerable than the Northern and will be easier to harry. If nothing else, it should be easy to capture some waterbenders who could be persuaded to align themselves with the victors."

Should was the operative word there, and the entire rest of the room had to know it. They had been confident, two weeks ago when the invasion force was sent off, that it would only take one strong blow to bring the Northern Water Tribe down. But the Northern Water Tribe was still standing and the Fire Nation fleet had been tattered.

Qiang could not bring himself to suggest that they might fail at something as seemingly easy as conquering the Southern Water Tribe. Failure was not an option for the Fire Nation, not when the fate of the world was on the line, and even if their were setbacks the Fire Nation would be able to handle them.

"Very well," Azulon said, after the silence had stretched to the point where some of those present– particularly those who had gone the entire meeting without speaking– had begun to shift uncomfortably on their cushions. "If no one has anything else to mention, I suppose I should dismiss you all."

The young officer Qiang needed to learn the name of rocked forward, but Admiral Chae Won caught him before he could stand. The officer immediately blanched, but Azulon did not reprimand him for preparing to leave when he had not actually been dismissed.

Instead he looked the kid– who had to have been at least ten years older than Azulon himself, now that Qiang was directly comparing the young officer and the Prince– over in a way uncannily like how a quartermaster examined a new shipment of weapons for flaws before allowing them to be distributed.

Azulon turned his gaze to the rest of the group, analyzing them in a way that he had not when he had first entered the room. He was completely silent, and so still that he might have been painted onto the steps of dais if not for the movement of his eyes as they slid from one officer to the next with the regularity of a water clock. The effect was disconcerting enough to make more than one officer flinch.

Qiang tried his very best to look clever, optimistic, and agreeable, knowing that the Prince was getting a finger on which of them agreed with him, which would be worth keeping around, and which would be potential threats in the future. It was best to look willing to go along and not _too_ terribly bright. Overly clever generals had been the end of more than one Firelord, and Qiang had no doubt Sozin's heir was already taking steps to ensure that he wouldn't join their ranks.

Azulon's gaze lingered on Qiang for what felt like just a bit longer than it had on the others, but Qiang did not flinch. This looked to be the dawning of a new era for the Fire Nation, one that he might do quite well in as long as he kept in the future Firelord's good graces.

And Qiang thought he could manage that quite well, no matter how the war went.


End file.
